Tsundere* Leader
Tsundere* Leader
He debated within about letting the scroll stay or to burn it. In the end, he decided that the wiser thing would be to make sure that it landed in his teacher's hand. He was banking on her abilities to be able to realise how unsuitable was this Yashvardhan for her daughter.
Southern zilla
It had been a week since he had sent that letter to Mriga. By now, he should have heard back from her. Impatiently, Yash sat down to write another one and just to be sure, wrote one to Ishani as well.
He went down to his father's study room to drop the letters for posting but his hand froze mid-air at the door. His parents were arguing and that too loud enough to beat the thickness of the rosewood door.
He stood outside and tried to make sense of the muffled words. He knew instinctively that this furor must have been caused by his father's letter. Smartly, Harshvardhan had gone away on business, the day when all hell broke loose in their house. Yash grinned at the memory when his mother had realised it.
But the next moment, he felt ashamed over his cowardice and this is exactly what he had written to Mriga in the last letter. He had admitted his guilt and come clean on all counts. After baring his heart out, he had hoped that she would respond in kindness but he was yet to hear back from her. Never mind, he won't give up!
Eastern Zilla
"Gosh! It is so humid here. My skin feels like it is slimy and sticky," said Vandit who came from the Southern zilla originally and was used to the sun beating down during summers and a pleasant winter.
Abhirath had been born and brought up in the capital and this weather was slightly different for him as well but he snorted at the blatant display of weakness on Vandit's part. Both Nirbhay and Chiranjeev were inhabitants of the Western zilla and it being a coastal area similar to this one, there wasn't much to complain about in their books and they said so to Vandit.
In Mriga's opinion, it was definitely humid but nothing that big to waste one's breath over. She was curious about the new place and was soaking it all in. The boys' pull-and-push conversation was just background noise for her at the moment. They were dropped outside a dingy looking building and the carriage pulled away without even a wave of hand once they had offloaded themselves and their bags.
"Ugh, unfriendly guy," Vandit grumbled again, stretching his cramped muscles.
It seemed that he was determined to dislike the place and its inhabitants. His original assignment was supposed to be at the Northern zilla and he had looked forward to the winters there.
"Hello, you all must be from the Gurukul. My name is Lata. Welcome to Eastern zilla," a girl, not much older than them came forward and greeted them with a smile.
As always, Abhirath took the lead in responding and they followed her as she walked inside that dilapidated structure. Everyone, including Abhirath had the same thought – this was way worse than the Admin building. Were they going to spend a month working out of here?
"I will take you to your quarters first. You must be tired after that journey. Please settle in and freshen up before meeting everyone else," Lata gestured them to follow her as she went deeper inside.
All five of them were taken aback at her words. They would even have to stay in this dump for the coming month?
Surprisingly, the building was much wider on the inside. It was almost like a bazaar*, with various lanes running in different directions from where they stood. But not much could be seen up ahead in those alleys as they were poorly lit.
Sensing that his group looked ready to bolt, Abhirath said hastily, "Sure. Please lead the way."
As the girl started to walk ahead, Abhirath turned to stare at all of them. His intimidating expression was enough to nip the rising mutiny in the bud. Once he was satisfied that none of them would say anything uncomplimentary, he resumed his walk behind Lata, paying attention to what she was telling them about the place.
Had this happened a few months ago, he would have used the opportunity to come in the good graces of the new seniors and let the rest of them do whatever they liked. But without his even knowing it, he had taken over the responsibility of the wellbeing of these four idiots. He smiled to himself as this realisation hit him in this moment.
But immediately he sobered up. He reminded himself that he needed to keep the stern demeanour in front of all of them, especially that seemingly cute girl. She looked at him with a doe-eyed expression, making his resolve weaken every single time. If any of them knew that he had a soft side, they would eat him up!
Thankfully, things improved when they reached the end of the lane. Suddenly, they were standing in front of a small structure which was well lit and clean. A building within a building? They entered through the door and were startled to see a pristine clean large hall with rows and rows of beds along both sides of the walls, length wise. It resembled their dorm rooms, back at the Gurukul.
*Bazaar - Market place
Tsundere* (Japanese) - A person who is initially cold and even hostile towards another person before gradually showing their warm side over time